blockade

United States President Donald Trump has claimed Iran is “collapsing financially” and said the country is losing millions of dollars a day due to Washington’s naval blockade of Iranian ports.

In a post on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday night, Trump wrote: “Iran is collapsing financially! They want the Strait of Hormuz opened immediately – Starving for cash! Losing 500 Million Dollars a day. Military and Police complaining that they are not getting paid. SOS!!!”

The US blockade of Iranian ports began at 14:00 GMT on April 13. Since then, the US has fired on and seized an Iranian-flagged tanker near the Strait of Hormuz, and redirected ships in the open seas carrying cargo to or from Iran. Iran’s armed forces have called this “an illegal act” that “amounts to piracy”.

In response to the US naval blockade, Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz to all foreign shipping and has captured several foreign-flagged ships. Previously, it had allowed some ships deemed “friendly” to Iran to pass.

On April 19, Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said the “security of the Strait of Hormuz is not free”.

“One cannot restrict Iran’s oil exports while expecting free security for others,” he wrote in a post on X.

“The choice is clear: either a free oil market for all, or the risk of significant costs for everyone,” he added. “Stability in global fuel prices depends on a guaranteed and lasting end to the economic and military pressure against Iran and its allies.”

In a statement on social media on Thursday, Iran’s parliamentary speaker and lead negotiator in the ceasefire talks, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said a full ceasefire could only work if the US naval blockade is lifted.

Analysts say the blockade is hurting Iran but believe the country has the economic and political will to sustain it.

How long can Iran survive the naval blockade?

Here’s what we know:

How is the naval blockade hurting Iran?

Iran exports oil, gas and other goods including petrochemicals, plastics and agricultural products by sea. Analysts say the US naval blockade of its ports, including in the Strait of Hormuz, could therefore affect this trade.

Soon after the start of the US-Israel war on Iran on February 28, authorities in Tehran implemented the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the only waterway out of the Gulf, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies were shipped from Gulf producers in peacetime.

The near-shutdown of the vital chokepoint sent global oil and gas prices soaring, and since then, Iran has controlled the strait. However, it has continued to export its own energy products through the waterway.

Iran’s oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz account for about 80 percent of its total oil exports. According to Kpler, a trade intelligence firm, Iran exported 1.84 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil in March and has shipped 1.71 million bpd so far in April, compared with an average of 1.68 million bpd in 2025.

From March 15 to April 14, it exported 55.22 million barrels of oil. The price per barrel of Iranian oil – across its three major variants, known as Iranian light, Iranian heavy and Forozan blend – has not fallen below $90 per barrel over the past month. On many days, the price has surpassed $100 a barrel.

Even at the conservative estimate of $90 a barrel, Iran has earned at least $4.97bn over the past month from its ongoing oil exports.

By contrast, in early February before the war started, Iran was earning about $115m a day from its crude oil exports, or $3.45bn in a month.

Simply put, Iran has earned 40 percent more from oil exports in the past month than it did before the war.

Stopping this is a key motivation behind the US naval blockade of Iranian ports.

In an interview with Al Jazeera on April 14, Frederic Schneider, a nonresident senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, told Al Jazeera that the previous six weeks had been a boon for Iran in terms of oil revenues, but with the US blockade, that will change.

“Iran has some buffer in the form of crude oil reserves in floating tanks – basically parked tankers – which was estimated at about 127 million barrels in February. But that doesn’t mean that the blockade wouldn’t hurt Iran,” he said.

On Friday, Schneider told Al Jazeera that Iran, however, seems to be “playing the longer game” and has anticipated and prepared for this sort of conflict to some degree.

“The naval blockade has added economic strain, as several civilian ships have been captured in international waters. But it remains unclear how tight the blockade is, how many ships manage to pass given the considerable amount of floating Iranian oil, and how long Trump can maintain the blockade,” he said.

Can the US keep the blockade going for long?

Schneider noted that Trump will face a legislative challenge by May 1, when the 60 days he can maintain a foreign offensive without congressional approval come to an end.

Dire conditions have been reported on the ships that are upholding the blockade, he said, and it remains to be seen how China will react to the continuing seizure of ships that carry any of its cargo.

“China has already said it sees the blockade of Chinese trade with Iran as unacceptable. Further, the closure of Hormuz by Iran in retaliation is hurting, if not the US itself that much, American allies in the region and globally, raising the pressure on Trump,” he said.

“If we can glean anything from the behaviour of the two sides, it is Iran that is signalling patience and Trump showing impatience,” he added.

Adam Ereli, a former US ambassador to Bahrain, told Al Jazeera’s This is America programme that while the US blockade of Iranian ports and seizure of vessels transporting Iranian oil “makes sense” as a policy, it may not work as intended due to domestic political considerations in the US.

“The Iranians have prepared for this, for this eventuality. They have their own plans. They’ve got alternative means of storing their oil or selling their oil,” Ereli told Al Jazeera.

“Even if they ran out of oil, they have ways to survive a very tough blockade and sanctions regime that, frankly, I think will outlast Trump’s patience and the patience of the American people,” he said.

“Remember, this isn’t just about moving soldiers and ships and planes around on a map. There’s politics involved here in the United States,” he added.

“Trump is nothing if not attuned to the political winds. And for that reason, I think that you’ve got this Iran strategy on the one hand that runs up against an electoral strategy on another hand, and therefore, the question is, which one is going to give?”

Can Iran store the oil the US is blockading in the meantime?

Iran’s domestic refineries have a capacity of 2.6 million bpd, according to consultancy FGE Energy. Its oil and gas production facilities are concentrated in southwestern provinces: Khuzestan for oil and Bushehr for gas and condensate from the South Pars gasfield.

Iran is also the third-largest oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and exports 90 percent of its crude oil via Kharg Island for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

The US naval blockade has begun affecting the country’s storage capacity, according to TankerTrackers, the maritime intelligence agency. The blockade means Iran has to store more oil, and space could become tight.

TankerTrackers said that on Kharg Island, to prepare for the possibility of running out of oil storage space, Iran has brought an old tanker named NASHA (9079107) out of retirement.

“She’s a 30yo [year old] VLCC [Very Large Crude Carrier] that’s been anchored empty for the past few years; currently spending 4 days on a trip that should take 1.5-2 days,” TankerTrackers said in a post on X, suggesting that the tanker is being used to store oil. It is unclear if the ship has a heading or course.

Can Iran continue to earn revenues from oil?

Yes, analysts say that for a few months, Iran can continue to earn revenue from oil which is already in transit at sea.

Kenneth Katzman, former Iran analyst at the Congressional Research Service in Washington, DC, said Iran is not exporting new oil amid the US blockade of Iranian ports, but Tehran has between 160 million and 170 million barrels of oil “afloat” on ships around the world currently.

Those supplies, which transited the Strait of Hormuz before the US blockade was imposed, are on board hundreds of tankers and “waiting to be delivered”, Katzman told Al Jazeera.

Katzman said he had been informed by an Iranian professor that, based on those supplies, Tehran could have revenue flows that can last until August despite the US naval blockade.

“Which is a long time. Does President Trump have until August? Probably not,” he said.

“He’s probably going to have to look at kinetic escalation if he wants to bring this to the conclusion that he wants, or he’s going to have to accept less than the deal he ideally wants,” he said.

Iranian ships will still have to avoid US naval ships on the open ocean, as the US Navy has also recently intercepted ships carrying Iranian cargoes.

On Wednesday this week, for example, the US military intercepted at least three Iranian-flagged tankers in ‌Asian waters, Reuters reported, and was said to be redirecting them away from their positions near India, Malaysia and Sri Lanka.

How else can Iran earn revenue?

Besides oil revenue, Iran is also currently receiving revenue from a “toll booth” system that the country imposed on the Strait of Hormuz in March.

On Thursday, Iran’s deputy parliament speaker Hamidreza Haji-Babaei said Tehran’s central bank had received the first revenues from tolls imposed since the start of the war, according to the semiofficial Tasnim news agency. It is unclear how much that toll revenue is.

Iranian politician Alaeddin Boroujerdi told the United Kingdom-based, Farsi-language satellite TV channel Iran International in March that the country has been charging some vessels as much as $2m each to pass through the strait.

According to Lloyd’s List, the shipping news outlet, at least two vessels that have transited the strait so far have paid fees in yuan, China’s currency. Lloyd’s List reported that one “transit was brokered by a Chinese maritime services company acting as an intermediary, which also handled the payment to Iranian authorities”. It is, however, not clear how much the vessels paid.

How resilient is Iran’s leadership?

In recent days, while pressuring Iran to negotiate a ceasefire deal, US President Donald Trump has claimed that Iranians are “having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is”, alleging that there is “crazy” infighting between “moderates” and “hardliners” in Tehran.

But the country’s officials have insisted that Iran’s government is united.

Mohammad Reza Aref, Iran’s first vice president, said on Thursday: “Our political diversity is our democracy, yet in times of peril, we are a ‘Single Hand’ under one flag. To protect our soil and dignity, we transcend all labels. We are one soul, one nation.”

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also dismissed allegations that the Iranian military may be at odds with the political leadership.

“The failure of Israel’s terrorist killings is reflected in how Iran’s state institutions continue to act with unity, purpose, and discipline,” he wrote on X, referring to the assassinations of Iranian political and military figures Israel has carried out in recent weeks.

“The battlefield and diplomacy are fully coordinated fronts in the same war. Iranians are all united, more than ever before.”

One of the strongest messages of unity came from Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian.

“In Iran, there are no radicals or moderates,” he said on X.

“We are all Iranians and revolutionaries. With ironclad unity of nation and state and obedience to the Supreme Leader, we will make the aggressor regret.”

How strong is Iran militarily?

Iran has demonstrated considerable military resilience in the face of weeks of US-Israeli strikes through its use of asymmetric warfare.

This includes the use of guerrilla tactics, cyberattacks, arming and supporting proxy armed groups and other indirect tools.

During its war with the US and Israel, Iran has targeted energy infrastructure in Israel and across the Gulf, threatened to target banking institutions and targeted US data centres of technology companies such as Amazon in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Iran has also blocked the Strait of Hormuz and reportedly placed mines in the strait to disrupt shipping, sending global oil prices soaring.

Since the US began its naval blockade of Iranian ports in mid-April, Iranian officials have repeatedly promised that their country will defend itself and respond to any US attack.

Earlier this week, after the US military said it had seized an Iranian vessel and ordered dozens of others to turn around, Iran also retaliated by capturing foreign commercial vessels around the Hormuz Strait, which it said violated naval regulations.

Ereli, the former US ambassador, told Al Jazeera that Iran and the IRGC have “revolutionary fervour”, which means they can “survive”. “They can tolerate pain for a lot longer than I think most American decision makers and planners calculate,” Ereli said.

Ereli said it was unknown how long Tehran could last under “siege conditions” imposed by the US, but probably a lot longer than the US anticipates.

“I think they can go a lot longer, especially than most people imagine, and especially when it comes to kneeling to the Americans,” Ereli said.

“There’s a level of pride and survival. They’re at war with us, and for them it’s a war of necessity. They’ve got to survive,” he added.

WASHINGTON — President Trump has turned to naval blockades to pressure the governments of Venezuela, Cuba and now Iran to meet his demands, but his preferred tactic is confronting a very different reality in the Middle East than in the Caribbean.

Unlike Cuba or Venezuela, Iran choked off a crucial trade route for energy shipments, meaning the longer the standoff persists, the more the global economy will suffer. Tehran also poses a greater military threat than those two adversaries in America’s own hemisphere and requires a sustained military presence far from U.S. shores.

Iran’s leverage over the Strait of Hormuz gives it power during a shaky ceasefire because the widening economic risks, especially higher U.S. gas prices in an election year, could force the Republican president to end the blockade on Iran’s ports and coastline, experts say.

“It’s really a question now of which country, the U.S. or Iran, has a greater pain tolerance,” said Max Boot, a military historian and senior fellow for national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Iran presents ‘major differences’ from other blockades

The effectiveness of Trump’s use of the world’s most powerful navy to block the trade of Iran’s sanctioned oil and other goods is very much up for debate. But it certainly appears to be intensifying as the war grinds on.

The U.S. military on Thursday announced the seizure of another tanker associated with the smuggling of Iranian oil, a day after Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards took control of two vessels in the crucial waterway.

Trump also announced he has ordered the U.S. military to “shoot and kill” Iranian small boats laying sea mines in the strait.

But the situation in Iran is not exactly analogous to what is playing out with the U.S. operations in Venezuela and Cuba.

Some experts say Trump’s success in Venezuela probably had more to do with the U.S. military raid that captured leader Nicolás Maduro than American warships seizing sanctioned oil tankers to enforce U.S. control over the South American country.

A U.S. oil embargo on Cuba, meanwhile, has caused the island’s most severe economic crisis in decades. While U.S. and Cuban officials have met recently on the island for rare talks, the financial strangulation has failed to produce the Trump administration’s stated goal of leadership change.

“I do think that the success of the Maduro mission in Venezuela has probably emboldened the president,” said Todd Huntley, director of Georgetown University’s National Security Law Program.

That does not make the situations in Venezuela and Iran similar — geographically, militarily or politically. “There are some major differences,” said Huntley, a retired Navy captain and judge advocate general.

While the blockade against Iran has delivered a severe blow to its economy, including stopping freighters from importing various supplies, the country has still been able to move some of its sanctioned oil, ship-tracking companies say.

Iran has rejected Trump’s demands to reopen the strait, where 20% of the world’s oil normally flows, and it has been firing on ships again this week. Stalled shipments through the strait have sent gasoline prices skyrocketing far beyond the region and raised the cost of food and a wide array of other products, creating a political problem for Trump before the November’s elections.

“Blockades are usually just one tool of a mechanism used in a conflict,” said Salvatore Mercogliano, a maritime history professor at Campbell University in North Carolina. “They can be important. But it’s only one element. And I don’t think it’s going to be enough to convince the Iranians.”

Effectiveness of U.S. blockade called into question

Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, claimed last week that “no ship has evaded U.S. forces.” The command overseeing the Middle East said it has directed 31 ships to turn around or return to port as of Wednesday.

Merchant shipping groups are skeptical.

Lloyd’s List Intelligence said “a steady flow of shadow fleet traffic” has passed in and out of the Persian Gulf, including 11 tankers with Iranian cargo that have left the Gulf of Oman outside the strait since April 13.

The maritime intelligence firm Windward said this week that Iranian traffic continues to flow “via deception.”

Iranian ships have several ways to sneak through the blockade, including spoofing their location tracking data or traveling through Pakistani territorial waters, Mercogliano said. He also noted that the sheer volume of shipping traffic the military needs to screen is a challenging task.

Blockades require patience to work

The last time the U.S. mounted a blockade similar to the one focused on Iranian ships was during the Kennedy administration in the early 1960s, against Cuba, Huntley said.

“And it wasn’t even called a blockade,” he said. “We called it quarantine.”

Some naval blockades over the course of history have had an impact, such as Britain’s blockade on Germany during World War I. “But they tend to be very long-term impacts, whereas Trump is looking for short-term, quick results,” according to Boot, the military historian.

He said Trump probably saw the blockade on sanctioned oil tankers tied to Venezuela as playing a large role in the success of leadership changes in that country. But Boot said it had more to do with the U.S. ousting Maduro and the subsequent cooperation from his vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who is now the acting president.

“There is no Delcy Rodríguez in Cuba or Iran,” Boot said. “I think his success in Venezuela led him astray, thinking that this was a template that could be replicated elsewhere. He sees it as a huge success at little cost. And, in fact, it turns out to be a unique set of circumstances.”

Finley, Klepper and Toropin write for the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — Iranian forces attacked three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, stoking an already tense standoff in the Persian Gulf as a U.S. naval blockade strains Tehran’s economy and pressures its divided leadership to return to peace talks.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it seized two ships and damaged a third after the vessels “ignored repeated warnings.” British maritime monitors confirmed the incidents, describing one cargo ship left disabled in the water and another that took heavy damage to its bridge.

“Disrupting order and safety in the Strait of Hormuz is considered a red line for Iran,” the Iranian Navy Command said in a statement.

Hours before, President Trump confirmed he would maintain the naval blockade in the gulf, but agreed to give Iranian leaders additional time to agree on a new peace proposal, he wrote in a Truth Social post.

“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump wrote Tuesday.

More than a dozen American warships have prevented exports from leaving Iranian ports since peace talks in Islamabad failed earlier this month. The tactic has greatly constrained Iranian oil exports — about 90% of which flow through the Strait of Hormuz — contributing to rising inflationary pressure.

The restrictions could wipe out roughly $435 million in daily economic activity, according to Miad Maleki, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Oil exports, Tehran’s primary revenue source, have halted. At the same time, Iran has been unable to import food or industrial goods. As a result, the blockade is expected to empty Iran’s war coffers and sharply accelerate inflationary effects on its people.

Trump is betting that the strategy will force Iran’s fractured negotiating team — which appears to be split between parliamentary moderates and hard-liners within the Revolutionary Guard — to agree on a “unified” peace proposal.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Wednesday the president extended the ceasefire agreement to allow Iran to get their “act together,” and emphasized that Trump has not given Iran a “firm deadline” to respond yet.

“President Trump will ultimately dictate the timeline and he will do so when he feels it is in the best interest of the United States and the American people,” Leavitt told reporters.

Though she declined to specify who the administration is negotiating with in Iran, Leavitt said the president was “generously offering a bit of flexibility” to the regime so that they can come up with a unified response.

“This is a battle between the pragmatists and the hard-liners in Iran right now,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House.

That division was visible earlier this week when plans for a second round of talks in Islamabad collapsed after Iranian officials failed to confirm participation and instead introduced new preconditions under pressure from hard-line factions.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Bagher Ghalibaf initially signaled a willingness to attend talks, but was overshadowed by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Maj. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, who insisted that the United States lift its blockade before discussions could begin. A report by the Institute for the Study of War said Vahidi sought to derail negotiations rather than secure meaningful economic relief.

“One challenge with the ongoing negotiations is the divided nature of Iran’s negotiating team,” the report said, adding that “[Trump’s] reference to a ‘unified’ proposal appears to imply that previous proposals were not unified in some way.”

And while hard-liners continue attempts to derail diplomacy with continued demands and attacks in the strait, moderates in Iran continue to push for peace.

This week, prominent Sunni cleric Moulana Abdol Hamid called a “fair agreement” the only viable path forward and warned that those who seek to block negotiations would bear responsibility for the “homeland’s devastation.”

Benjamin Radd, a political scientist at UCLA who studies Iran, said the dispute is a sign of a larger power struggle for control of Tehran’s government.

“There are clear divisions within the leadership,” Radd said in an interview. “Right now, it’s the IRGC faction that has all the power. They have the guns, they have the weapons. What they don’t have is the diplomatic connections and experience dealing with the United States.”

Radd pointed to the economic toll of the U.S. blockade as a key driver of tension inside Iran.

“They’re facing a huge domestic crisis,” he said. “They’re not able to replenish their own needs. Nothing can get in or out of the country. They can’t make any money.”

The consequences of the U.S. strategy could push the more moderate Iranian leaders to strike a deal on nuclear enrichment or a reopening of the strait in exchange for the United States lifting the blockade, Radd said.

“That would start rebuilding some sort of trust,” Radd said. “And then we’re seeing the IRGC is basically steadfast, refusing to do any of this.”

With renewed Israeli attacks in Lebanon killing at least three people Wednesday, despite a 10-day ceasefire agreement, Iranian leaders are preparing for the possibility that talks with the United States will fail altogether.

“Iran has prepared for a new phase of fighting,” the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency reported this week, citing military redeployments and updated target lists.

Meanwhile, Iranian Judiciary Chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei warned that renewed U.S. or Israeli strikes were likely. Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei made a similar statement in a news briefing Wednesday. He announced the country’s armed forces were “on high alert” and ready to defend against any threat, while being open to Pakistan’s mediation efforts.

He did not confirm if the government was participating in a second round of negotiations.

“Diplomacy is a tool for ensuring national interests and security,” he said, “and we will take the necessary steps whenever we conclude that the necessary and logical grounds exist to use this tool to achieve national interests.”

Until then, it appears both Washington and Tehran will continue brinkmanship in the strait.

On Wednesday morning, the IRGC released a statement confirming it seized the two cargo ships and identified them as the MSC Francesca and the Epaminondas. It claimed the MSC Francesca was linked to Israel and accused both of “jeopardizing maritime security by operating without necessary permits and tampering with navigation systems.”

A third ship, the Euphoria, which sails under the Panamanian flag and is owned by a company based in the United Arab Emirates, was fired upon early Wednesday while heading east out of the Strait of Hormuz, according to Vanguard, a maritime intelligence firm.

The Euphoria later resumed sailing toward the Gulf of Oman, according to Lloyd’s List.

In Lebanon, Amal Khalil became the fourth journalist killed by Israeli fire since hostilities with the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah intensified on March 2.

Khalil’s body was reported to have been found under the rubble of a house where she and freelance photographer Zeinab Faraj were sheltering, according to their colleagues.

Khalil and Faran were in the southern Lebanese town of Al-Tayri, covering developments there when an Israeli attack targeted the vehicle in front of them, killing its occupants.

The two journalists then sheltered in a house but were hit by Israeli fire once more, according to a statement from the Lebanese Health Ministry.

When Red Cross crews scrambled to the area to rescue the trapped journalists, they were targeted with a sound bomb and machine-gun fire.

The Israeli military said it was not preventing rescue teams from reaching the area and that the incident was under review. It acknowledged targeting a vehicle it said had come out of a structure used by Hezbollah and was heading toward Israeli troops.

The Red Cross reached the house by the early evening local time, and rescued Faraj, who is reported to be in stable condition after undergoing surgery for a head wound, according to her colleagues.

Times staff writers Ana Ceballos in Washington and Nabih Bulos in Beirut contributed to this report.

A Cuban Foreign Ministry official said the exchange with Washington was ‘respectful and professional’ and devoid of threats.

The Cuban government has confirmed that it held recent talks in Havana with officials from the United States, as tensions remain high between the two countries over Washington’s energy blockade of the Caribbean country.

Alejandro Garcia del Toro, deputy director general in charge of US affairs at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on Monday that the US delegation included assistant secretaries of state, and the Cuban delegation included representatives at the level of deputy foreign minister.

Garcia de Toro said that the US delegation did not issue any threats or deadlines as had been reported by some US media outlets.

“The entire exchange was conducted with respect and professionalism,” he said.

In comments reported by Cuba’s Communist Party newspaper Granma, Garcia del Toro emphasised that ending the three-month-old US oil blockade was “a top priority” for the Cuban government in the talks, and accused Washington of “blackmail” for threatening countries that export oil to Cuba with tariffs.

“This act of economic coercion is an unjustified punishment for the entire Cuban population,” he said.

“It is also a form of global blackmail against sovereign states, which have every right to export fuel to Cuba, in accordance with the principles of free trade,” he added.

US news outlet Axios reported on Friday that officials from US President Donald Trump’s administration held multiple meetings in Havana on April 10, including with Raul Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, grandson of former President Raul Castro. The meetings marked the first time that American diplomats had flown into Cuba since 2016 in a new diplomatic push.

According to reports, US officials laid out several conditions for negotiations with Cuba to continue, including the release of prominent political prisoners, an end to political repression, and liberalising the island’s ailing economy.

The Reuters news agency said that US proposals for Cuba also include allowing Elon Musk’s Starlink internet terminals into the country and providing compensation for Americans and US corporations for assets confiscated by Cuba after the 1959 revolution. Washington is also concerned about the influence of foreign powers on the island, a US official told the news agency.

Trump has hinted at military intervention in Cuba and warned of tariffs on any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba. The fuel blockade has aggravated Cuba’s economic and energy crisis, leading to warnings of a humanitarian disaster.

Cubans have also braced for a possible attack following Trump’s repeated warnings that the country will be “next” after his war on Iran and the US military’s abduction of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro in January.

Last week, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said that his country was prepared to fight if the US carried through on its threats.

The leaders of Mexico, Spain and Brazil on Saturday voiced concern over the “dramatic situation” in Cuba and urged “sincere and respectful dialogue”.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday there was no evident justification for the US to attack Cuba.

“The ability to defend oneself does not mean the right to intervene militarily in other states when their political systems do not match what others might have in mind,” he said.

Iran says it has reopened the Strait of Hormuz, which it largely closed after being attacked by the U.S. and Israel. The move was prompted by a temporary ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy. However, the U.S. blockade on Iranian ports enacted on Monday remains in place, President Donald Trump announced on his Truth Social social media site.

All this comes as the U.S. and Iran appear closer to reaching a deal to end the war, which we will discuss in greater detail later in this story. The temporary ceasefire between the two countries ends April 21.

“In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire, on the coordinated route as already announced by Ports and Maritime Organization of the Islamic Rep. of Iran,” Sayyed Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian Foreign Minister, stated on X Friday morning.

That route is a narrow five-mile stretch between the islands of Qeshem and Larak, roughly 15 miles from the Iranian shoreline.

In a post on his Truth Social site, U.S. President Donald Trump hailed the decision but said it did not change the ongoing blockade.

“THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ IS COMPLETELY OPEN AND READY FOR BUSINESS AND FULL PASSAGE, BUT THE NAVAL BLOCKADE WILL REMAIN IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT AS IT PERTAINS TO IRAN, ONLY, UNTIL SUCH TIME AS OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE,” Trump stated. “THIS PROCESS SHOULD GO VERY QUICKLY IN THAT MOST OF THE POINTS ARE ALREADY NEGOTIATED.”

The president added that “Iran has agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again. It will no longer be used as a weapon against the World!” However, there was no immediate response from Tehran.

Regarding any peace deals, Trump said on his Truth Social network that the “U.S.A. will get all Nuclear ‘Dust,’ created by our great B2 Bombers – No money will exchange hands in any way, shape, or form.”

This was a reference to the Operation Midnight Hammer attack on Iranian nuclear facilities last year.  Iran is believed to have about 440.9 kg of uranium enriched up to 60% of the explosive uranium isotope, U-235 stored at these locations.

“This deal is in no way subject to Lebanon, either, but the USA will, separately, work with Lebanon, and deal with the Hezboolah situation in an appropriate manner. Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer,” Trump added.

It remains to be seen how this will play out. Iran’s state TV, citing a senior military official, highlighted that “only civilian vessels will be allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz via designated routes and with permission from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy.”

“The passage of military vessels through the strait remains prohibited,” it said.

Despite the closure, ships have still transited the strategic body of water through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas exports pass. Ship traffic through the Strait actually “increased from last month’s unusually low levels, with crossings rising and activity extending across a broader mix of vessel types and cargoes,” according to the global trade intelligence firm Kpler.

There is also still the issue of mines in the section of the Strait outside the Qeshem-Larak passage. Demining is one of the issues being discussed today in an international meeting being held in Paris, a French official told us. We’ll discuss this meeting in a little more detail later in this story.

Trump, however, claimed that “Iran, with the help of the U.S.A., has removed or is removing all sea mines!”

We have reached out to shippers and maritime analysis and security firms to get a clearer picture of what this decision means from their perspectives.

“This is good news,” a spokesman for Hapag-Lloyd told us. “There are still some open questions on our end, but they might be resolved within the next 24 hours. Top priority for the passage is safety and security for the seafarers, the vessel and the cargo of our customers. If all open issues are cleared (i.e. insurance coverage, clear orders of Iranian government/military about the exact sea corridor to be used and the sequence of ships leaving) we would prefer to pass the strait as soon as possible. Our crisis committee is in session and will try to resolve all open items with the relevant parties within the next 24-36 hours.”

The reopening of the Strait “marks a turn for global shipping, as it allows over 750 vessels previously trapped in the Middle East Gulf to begin clearing approximately $17 billion in stranded energy and dry bulk cargoes,” Kpler told us. “As of April 17, 2026, there are 862 vessels currently operating within the Mideast Gulf. The core of the backlog is composed of approximately 187 laden tankers carrying roughly 172 million barrels of crude and refined products, along with a specialized cluster of 15 LNG vessels that remain almost entirely stalled following the collapse of recent ceasefire talks.”

The Strait reopening and a looming new round of peace talks appears to have provided a boost to the world economy.

“Oil prices are falling by more than 10%, and Wall Street is rallying toward another record after Iran said the Strait of Hormuz is fully open, which would allow oil tankers to exit the Persian Gulf again and carry crude to customers worldwide,” The Associated Press reported. “The S&P 500 rallied 0.7% as U.S. stocks sprinted toward the finish of a third straight week of big gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1%, and the Nasdaq composite added 1%.”

Stocks “have rallied more than 11% since late March on hopes that the United States and Iran can avoid a worst-case scenario for the global economy,” the wire service added.

BREAKING: President Trump and Iran’s foreign minister say the Strait of Hormuz is now fully open. Crude oil prices tumble 10% after the announcements. https://t.co/d44au7X8UP

— The Associated Press (@AP) April 17, 2026

UPDATES

Our coverage for the day has concluded.

UPDATE: 5:45 PM EDT–

Trump told CBS News that Iran has “agreed to everything,” and will work with the U.S. to remove its enriched uranium.

He insisted that doing so will not involve U.S. ground troops. But when asked who would retrieve it, he would only say “our people.”

“No. No troops,” he told the network. “We’ll go down and get it with them, and then we’ll take it. We’ll be getting it together because by that time, we’ll have an agreement and there’s no need for fighting when there’s an agreement. Nice right? That’s better. We would have done it the other way if we had to.”

The president said the material would then be brought to the U.S.

“Our people, together with the Iranians, are going to work together to go get it. And then we’ll take it to the United States,” he said.

NEWS President Trump tells me:

-No ground troops will be required to remove enriched uranium from Iran

-Iran has agreed to stop backing all proxy groups like Hezbollah and Hamas

-I asked if Iran has agreed to stop enriching uranium *forever.” He said, “They’ve agreed to…

— Weijia Jiang (@weijia) April 17, 2026

UPDATE: 5:24 PM EDT –

Speaking to the White House press corps, Trump addressed questions about the peace process.

“We’ll see how it all turns out, but it should be good, some very good discussions, and hopefully that subject that you like to talk about will be very good,” he said. “And we’ve done a good job, but we’ll see … the talks are going on and going over the weekend, and a lot of good things are happening that includes Lebanon.”

Asked about differences with Iran on how all this is developing, Trump said: “If there are, I’m going to straighten it out. .. don’t think there’s too many significant differences.”

As for the blockade: “When the agreement is signed, the blockade ends,” he proclaimed.

Earlier on Friday, Iranian officials said they would close the Strait again if the blockade is not lifted.

“We’ve had some very good discussions… Talks are going on. It’ll go on over the weekend — and a lot of good things are happening,” says @POTUS in Arizona.

“As soon as the agreement gets signed, that’s when the blockade ends.” pic.twitter.com/PjNlBvwSAo

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 17, 2026

UPDATE: 1:34 PM EDT –

Trump told Axios that U.S. and Iranian negotiators will probably meet this weekend, and he expects them to hammer out a final deal to end the war. The deal should come “in a day or two,” Axios reporter Barak Ravid added on X.

UPDATE: 1:28 PM EDT –

Trump told Reuters on Friday that the U.S. will work with Iran to recover its enriched uranium ​and bring it back to the United States.

“We’re going to get ‌it together. We’re going to go in with Iran, at a nice leisurely pace, and go down and start excavating with big machinery… We’ll bring it back to the United ​States,” Trump said during a phone interview.

The ⁠United States will work ‌with Tehran to recover its enriched uranium and bring ​it back to ‌the United States, President Donald Trump told Reuters on Friday.

“We’re going to get it together. ‌We’re going to go in with Iran, at ⁠a nice leisurely pace, and go ‌down ​and… pic.twitter.com/ZfwJTFrIbr

— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) April 17, 2026

UPDATE: 1:17 PM EDT –

Seyyed Mohammad Mehdi Tabatabaei, a spokesperson for Iran’s president, pushed back on Trump’s claim that Iran promised never to close the Strait again.

“The Twitter rhetoric and baseless statements of the enemy are aimed at stripping the Iranian nation of their sense of pride for the great victories they have achieved through their resolute defense,” he stated on X. “The conditional and limited reopening of a portion of the Strait of Hormuz is solely an Iranian initiative, one that creates responsibility and serves to test the firm commitments of the opposing side. If they renege on their promises, they will face dire consequences.”

لفاظی‌های توئیتری و اظهارات بی‌پایه دشمن، در جهت سلب احساس افتخار ملت ایران برای پیروزی‌های بزرگی است که در دفاع مقتدرانه کسب کرده‌اند.
بازگشایی مشروط و محدود بخشی از تنگه هرمز ، صرفا ابتکاری ایرانی، مسئولیت‌آفرین و برای آزمون تعهدات قطعی طرف مقابل است. بدعهدی کنند، بد می‌بینند.

— سيد مهدي طباطبايي (@tabaei1356) April 17, 2026

UPDATE 12:51 PM EDT –

Iran considers the continuation of the U.S. blockade on its ports a ceasefire violation and would close the Strait of Hormuz again if the blockade is not lifted, the IRGC-affiliated Fars News reported citing an informed source close to the Supreme National Security Council.

We’ve reached out to the White House for comment.

Iranian official to Fars:

If the maritime blockade continues, it will be considered a violation of the ceasefire, and the Strait of Hormuz transit route will be closed.

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 17, 2026

With new talks potentially set to be held in Pakistan over the weekend, the U.S. and Iran are negotiating over a three-page plan to end the war, Axios reported Friday morning. One of the key elements under discussion is “that the U.S. would release $20 billion in frozen Iranian funds in return for Iran giving up its stockpile of enriched uranium,” the outlet noted, citing two U.S. officials and two additional sources briefed on the talks.

The Memo of Understanding (MoU) also states the two sides are negotiating over a “voluntary” moratorium on nuclear enrichment by Iran. It also deals with the Strait of Hormuz, “though the sources said there are still significant gaps on that issue,” Axios posited.

It’s unclear if the MOU refers to Iran’s ballistic missiles and its support for regional proxies.

🚨 SCOOP: The U.S. and Iran are negotiating over a three-page plan to end the war, with one element under discussion being that the U.S. would release $20 billion in frozen Iranian funds in return for Iran giving up its stockpile of enriched uranium. https://t.co/w84Yd8JHgp

— Axios (@axios) April 17, 2026

“Trump is directly talking to the Iranians,” U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News. 

“He is negotiating himself,” Graham proffered. “He was on the phone with the Iranians a couple of days ago, and it got rather sporty—to the point that Trump loudly told Iran what would happen if they keep playing games. He actually lost his voice. I’d hate to be the Iranian on the receiving end of that.”

Senator Graham:

Trump is directly talking to the Iranians. He is negotiating himself.

He was on the phone with the Iranians a couple of days ago, and it got rather sporty—to the point that Trump loudly told Iran what would happen if they keep playing games.

He actually lost… pic.twitter.com/rMPjT9SYYc

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 17, 2026

Despite rising hopes that the war in Iran could soon end, the country’s deputy foreign minister on Friday rejected any call for a temporary ceasefire. Instead, Tehran is seeking a comprehensive end to conflict across the Middle East, Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters today. That includes fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, currently paused on the first full day of a shaky 10-day ceasefire.

“We are not accepting any temporary ceasefire,” Khatibzadeh said on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum hosted by Turkey’s Foreign Affairs Ministry. Any end to the fighting must include all conflict zones “from Lebanon to the Red Sea,” he added, describing it as a “red line” for Iran.

The cycle of violence “should end here once and for all,” Khatibzadeh continued, according to Al Jazeera.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) said it is ready to resume fighting if needed.

The Army and the IRGC have their “finger on the trigger” and are “prepared to deliver a powerful, destructive, and regret-inducing response to any aggressive or criminal action by the US-Israeli enemy and their allies against the Iranian nation,” the IRGC said Friday.

As we noted earlier in this story, the leaders of nearly three dozen nations met – mostly virtually – at a conference in Paris today to discuss the future of the Strait of Hormuz.

Co-chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the conference on the Initiative for Maritime Navigation in the Strait of Hormuz looked at ways of protecting shipping after the fighting ends.

Starmer said the U.K. and France will lead a multinational mission to “protect freedom of navigation” in the Strait as soon as conditions permit. He added that the mission would be “strictly peaceful and defensive,” with the aim of reassuring commercial shipping and supporting mine clearance efforts.

Starmer invited other countries to join, saying that roughly a dozen countries had committed to contributing assets.

Kaja Kallas, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission, said leaders also discussed ensuring that Iran imposes no tolls on passage through the Strait.

“Any pay-for-passage scheme will set a dangerous precedent for global maritime routes,” she stated on X. “Iran has to abandon any plan to levy transit fees. Europe will play its part in restoring the free flow of energy and trade, once a ceasefire takes hold.”

Kallas added that the EU’s Aspides naval mission is already operating in the Red Sea “and can be quickly strengthened to protect shipping across the region. This could be the fastest way to provide support.”

Yesterday, a spokesman for Aspides told us that there were no changes in its mission.

Under international law, transit through waterways like the Strait of Hormuz must remain open and free of charge. This is what leaders made clear in their call on reopening the Strait today.

Any pay-for-passage scheme will set a dangerous precedent for global maritime routes.… pic.twitter.com/Jeufv4hQou

— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) April 17, 2026

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

Reports of Iranian gunboats opening fire on a tanker in strait, after Tehran said it is closing the waterway until the US lifts the blockade of its ports.

Iran says it has closed the Strait of Hormuz again, calling the decision a response to a continued blockade of its ports by the United States.

The Iranian military on Saturday said control of the strategic waterway, through which 20 percent of the global oil flows, has “returned to its previous state”, with reports saying Iranian gunboats fired at a merchant vessel as it attempted to ‌cross.

The closure of the strait came hours after it was reopened, with more than a dozen commercial ships passing through the waterway, after a US-mediated 10-day ceasefire deal was reached between Israel and Lebanon.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Saturday said in a statement, cited by the Iranian media, that the ongoing US blockade of Iranian ports represented “acts of piracy and maritime theft”, adding that the control over Hormuz is “under the strict management and control of the armed forces”.

“Until the US restores full freedom of navigation for vessels travelling from Iran to their destinations and back, the status of the Strait of Hormuz will remain tightly controlled and in its previous condition,” it said.

By 10:30 GMT on Saturday, no fewer than eight oil and gas tankers had crossed the strait, but at least as many ships appeared to have turned back, having begun to exit the Gulf, the AFP news agency reported.

The toing and froing over the strait cast doubt on US President Donald Trump’s optimism the day before, that a peace deal to end the US-Israel war on Iran was “very close”.

Trump had celebrated the reopening of the strait on Friday, but warned the US attacks would resume until Iran agreed to a deal, which included its nuclear programme.

“Maybe I won’t extend it,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force One about the temporary ceasefire agreement in place. “So you’ll have a blockade, and unfortunately we’ll have to start dropping bombs again.”

Asked whether a potential deal could be made in this short timeframe, Trump said: “I think it’s going to happen.”

But Iran says no date has been agreed for another round of peace talks, accusing the US of “betraying” diplomacy in all negotiations.

The conflicting and changing reports about the strait and how much freedom ships have to transit through it have deterred many vessels from crossing, according to John-Paul Rodrigue, a maritime shipping specialist at Texas A&M University.

“Ships have been attempting transit since the announcement, but it looks like many of them are heading back because the situation is unclear,” Rodrigue told Al Jazeera. “There is contradictory information being issued by all parties.”

Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi said “uncertainty is the name of the game” as far as the Strait of Hormuz is concerned.

“Iran is looking for a comprehensive end to the war across the region, security assurances, sanctions relief, the unfreezing of frozen assets, regional relations – and on top of all of that – the nuclear dossier and Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium,” he said.

“But right now, uncertainty is the name of the game. The fragile situation makes it hard to talk about the possibility of successful negotiations down the road.”

Michael Shoebridge, Director of Strategic Analysis Australia, says the US may be forced to end its blockade of Iran in order to see the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. military is not limiting its efforts to interdict Iranian vessels to the Middle East. Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters today that this is a global campaign.

“Let me be clear, this blockade applies to all ships, regardless of nationality, heading into or from Iranian ports,” he said. “The U.S. action is a blockade of Iran’s ports and coastline, not a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Enforcement will occur inside Iran’s territorial seas and in international waters.”

“In addition to this blockade, the joint force, through operations and activities in other areas of responsibility, like the Pacific Area of Responsibility, under the command of Admiral [Samuel] Paparo, will actively pursue any Iranian-flagged vessel or any vessel attempting to provide material support to Iran,” he added. “This includes Dark Fleet vessels carrying Iranian oil. As most of you know, Dark Fleet vessels are those illicit or illegal ships evading international regulations, sanctions or insurance requirements.”

Caine added that no Iranian ships have been boarded in the CENTCOM region so far, but he did not say if any have been interdicted outside the CENTCOM region. We have reached out to his office for more details. It should be noted that early in Epic Fury, a U.S. Navy submarine sunk an Iranian frigate in the Indian Ocean.

Caine was one of three top military leaders to brief reporters this morning on the currently paused Operation Epic Fury and the ongoing blockade. Here are some highlights from the press conference, which also included War Secretary Pete Hegseth, and CENTCOM commander, Adm. Brad Cooper.

• Caine explaining how the Navy is enforcing the blockade:

“This map is a pull from our common operating picture that we use to allow commanders and key leaders to see what is happening in near real time, we just grabbed screen grabs to highlight the actions and activities,” Caine noted. “What is not shown is how incredibly congested this area is and the incredible work that our sailors are doing to ensure that they can work in and around an incredibly busy water space. What is also not depicted here is the massive, massive force of fighters, intelligence aircraft, helicopters and other embarked forces, to include aerial refueling tankers that are up overhead this blockade area. You’ll note that U.S. forces are in blue. Iranian ships are in red.”

Miguel Diaz-Canel marks anniversary of socialist revolutionary declaration under threat of US attacks.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has said that his country does not seek conflict with the United States but is prepared to fight if necessary, as Cuba marks the anniversary of its socialist revolutionary character amid the threat of US attacks.

Diaz-Canel struck a defiant tone on Thursday in remarks before a crowd marking the 65th anniversary of Fidel Castro’s declaration of the socialist nature of the Cuban Revolution and the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs by forces aligned with the US the day after.

“The moment is extremely challenging and calls upon us once again, as on April 16, 1961, to be ready to confront serious threats, including military aggression,” Diaz-Canel said. “We do not want it, but it is our duty to prepare to avoid it and, if it becomes inevitable, to defeat it.”

President Donald Trump has threatened that the US could overthrow the Cuban government, a longtime source of ire for Washington, and has ratcheted up energy restrictions meant to squeeze the island’s economy.

“We may stop by Cuba after we finish with this,” Trump said earlier this week, stating that his attention could turn to Cuba after the end of the US-Israel war on Iran.

A US energy blockade and an end to oil shipments from Venezuela after the US abducted former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January have caused deteriorating conditions on the island. Fuel shortages and energy blackouts have roiled the island for weeks, heaping strain on workers and businesses.

Even before those increased restrictions, Cuba’s economy had suffered from decades of economic embargo from the US, along with economic mismanagement and political repression that prompted many Cubans to leave the country.

A vote at the United Nations in 2025 demanding an end to the US embargo passed with 165 votes in favour and seven against, including the US, Israel, Argentina, and Hungary. The resolution has been passed annually for more than 30 years.

“Cuba is not a failed state. Cuba is a besieged state,” Diaz-Canel said on Thursday. “Cuba is a state facing multidimensional aggression: economic warfare, an intensified blockade and an energy blockade.”

United States Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth has said the military blockade of Iran’s ports will continue “as long as it takes”, saying Washington remained “locked and loaded” to attack Iran’s energy facilities.

The US Pentagon chief spoke on Thursday as a tenuous pause in fighting agreed to last week has continued. On Monday, President Donald Trump announced the military would blockade Iran’s ports in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf after US-Iran talks in Pakistan failed to reach a breakthrough.

Hegseth struck an aggressive tone as he maintained the US military was monitoring Iran’s military movements during the pause in fighting, which currently is meant to extend through early next week.

“We are reloading with more power than ever before…even more importantly, better intelligence than ever before,” Hegseth said.

“As you expose yourself with your movement to our watchful eye, we are locked and loaded on your critical dual-use infrastructure, on your remaining power generation and on your energy industry,” he said.

Still, the Pentagon chief said the US prefers to resolve the conflict, which began with US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28, through diplomacy.

“You, Iran, can choose a prosperous future, a golden bridge, and we hope that you do for the people of Iran,” he said. “In the meantime and for as long as it takes, we will maintain this blockade, successful blockade, but if Iran chooses poorly, then they will have a blockade and bombs dropping on infrastructure, power and energy.”

On Wednesday, a Pakistani delegation arrived in Tehran to coordinate a new round of talks. While both sides have indicated they remained open to further negotiations, Major-General Ali Abdollahi, the commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), warned that the US blockade could end the current pause in fighting.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, meanwhile, indicated the US maintained a positive outlook on future talks.

“At this moment, we remain very much engaged in these negotiations, in these talks,” she said.

But reporting from Tehran on Thursday, Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem says deep-seated distrust remains. The US under Trump twice attacked Iran amid ongoing indirect talks over Iran’s nuclear programme, a fact that has cast a long shadow over the most recent bout of diplomacy.

“Clearly, there have been several messages conveyed to the Iranians. But rather than consolidating a feeling of trust and optimism, it seems that it’s already shaken,” he said.

“We saw a platform closely associated with the foreign ministry tweeting today, quoting a source saying that whatever is being demonstrated or said in the media regarding the optimism is just hype, and this is used for PR and it’s for President Trump to use in the markets,” he said.

Iran’s speaker of parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led the Iranian delegation in the talks with Iran, told his Lebanese counterpart on Thursday that a ceasefire in Israel’s invasion and ongoing bombardment of Lebanon is “as important” as the pause in fighting in Iran.

A Lebanon ceasefire has emerged as one of the main sticking points in talks, which also include control of the Strait of Hormuz and the future of Iran’s nuclear programme.

‘We will use force’

Speaking during the news conference on Thursday, General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said so far, 13 ships leaving Iranian ports have turned around in response to US military warnings.

“If you do not comply with this blockade, we will use force,” Caine said.

Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command (CENTCOM), meanwhile, said the US is using the wear to rearm and reposition its forces.

“We’re rearming, we’re retooling, and we’re adjusting our tactics, techniques and procedures. There’s no military in the world that adjusts like we do, and that’s exactly what we’re doing right now during the ceasefire,” said.

During questions with reporters, Hegseth also shot down reports that China was planning to send weapons to Iran amid the pause in fighting. Hegseth said Washington had received assurances from Beijing that this was not the case.

Hegseth also used a large portion of the news conference to attack US press coverage of the war, which the Trump administration is receiving criticism for its shifting objectives and justifications for launching the conflict.

Hegseth called the coverage “incredibly unpatriotic”.

April 15 (UPI) — The U.S. military’s maritime blockade of Iran has “completely halted” sea-based trade with the Middle Eastern country, U.S. Central Command said late Tuesday.

President Donald Trump announced the blockade on Sunday after negotiations to end the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran collapsed.

The blockade of 12 U.S. warships, more than 100 fighter and surveillance aircraft and more than 10,000 soldiers began at 10 a.m. EDT Monday, an effort to prohibit maritime traffic to and from all Iranian ports.

According to U.S. military officials, it covers the entire southern coastline of Iran, including ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, between which lies the Strait of Hormuz.

“A blockade of Iranian ports has been fully implemented as U.S. forces maintain maritime superiority in the Middle East,” Adm. Brad Cooper, Central Command commander, said in a statement.

“In less than 36 hours since the blockade was implemented, U.S. forces have completely halted economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea.”

Central Command said earlier Tuesday that no ships had made it through during the blockade’s first 24 hours and that six vessels had complied with U.S. forces’ direction to return to an Iranian port on the Gulf of Oman.

“The blockade is being enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas,” Central Command said.

The blockade comes amid a two-week cease-fire between the United States and Iran that Trump announced on April 8. During the fragile truce negotiations on a permanent end to the war were to be conducted.

However, negotiations with Iran collapsed in Pakistan on Sunday, seemingly over disagreements on Iran’s nuclear program and control of the Strait of Hormuz.

Not long after the war began with the United States and Israel attacking Iran on Feb. 28, Iran sharply restricted vessel traffic to the Strait of Hormuz, an important trade route through which flows roughly 27% of the world’s maritime trade in crude oil and petroleum products as well as 20% of global liquefied natural gas trade, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service.

Iran’s control of trade through the strait has caused gas prices to spike, threatening countries with energy crises.

The U.S. blockade appears aimed at financially squeezing Iran by cutting it off from maritime trade revenue.

According to Maid Maleki, senior fellow of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C., research institute, the blockade could cost Iran about $435 million a day.

“The blockade makes continued resistance economically impossible,” he said in a statement.

A day into the U.S.-imposed military blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, several ships have apparently transited the narrow waterway, including at least two that reportedly had previously stopped at Iranian ports. However, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) is pushing back against claims that vessels ran the blockade. As we noted yesterday, CENTCOM said the maritime exclusion operation would be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.”

Meanwhile, there are indications that the U.S. and Iran may continue seeking a diplomatic offramp to the crisis, which began Feb. 28 when America and Israel began bombarding the Islamic Republic. We will discuss that in greater detail later in this story.

Christianna, a Liberia-flagged cargo ship, “exited the Persian Gulf through the strait on Monday night, after leaving the Iranian port city of Bandar Imam Khomeini,” The New York Times reported, citing the global trade intelligence firm Kpler. It said the ship was not carrying any cargo.

In addition, Elpis, a methanol carrier, “traversed the strait roughly around the time that the U.S. blockade began, according to ship-tracking data,” the newspaper added, “Kpler said that the vessel had been at the Iranian port of Bushehr. The United States had placed sanctions on the ship last year under an earlier name, Chamtang, over its connections to the Iranian oil trade.”

CENTCOM contradicts reports on ships breaking blockade as Trump says US-Iran talks could resume in the next two days.

The Pentagon says no ships “made it past” the United States military blockade in the Strait of Hormuz in its first 24 hours and six merchant ships followed orders to turn around.

The statement on Tuesday from the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) was the first update since US President Donald Trump announced the blockade of the waterway after US-Iran talks over the weekend in Pakistan failed to yield an agreement on ending the war the US and Israel launched on February 28.

CENTCOM said the blockade applies only to vessels “entering and exiting Iranian ports” and other vessels remain free to transit the waterway.

It added: “US forces are supporting freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports.”

The Reuters news agency reported at least three vessels transited the strait during the first 24 hours of the blockade, citing shipping data. They included two tankers sanctioned by the US. The three ships were not heading to Iranian ports, according to Reuters.

However, the AFP news agency and several US media outlets, citing data from the maritime tracker Kpler, reported two ships had transited the waterway after leaving Iranian ports on Monday.

CENTCOM said 10,000 US sailors, Marines and airmen were involved in the operation, along with more than a dozen US warships and dozens of aircraft.

Military observers have widely said US forces have the capability to maintain the blockade for the foreseeable future but the continued pressure increases the likelihood of Iranian attacks. That in turn could see a two-week ceasefire that began on Wednesday collapse.

Meanwhile, any efforts to intercept vessels from strategic foes, including China, could create new escalations. The strategy is also likely to continue to roil global oil markets.

Iran has decried the US approach as “piracy” while Trump on Monday promised to “eliminate” any Iranian ships that seek to break the blockade.

Trump says more talks are possible

The update on Tuesday came as both sides signalled they would be open to further talks after failing to reach a breakthrough during 21 hours of negotiations between a US delegation led by Vice President JD Vance and an Iranian delegation led by parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

The talks were the highest-level face-to-face contact between the two countries since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Key unresolved sticking points include control of the Strait of Hormuz, the future of Iran’s nuclear programme and whether the ceasefire extended to Israel’s ongoing invasion and bombardment of Lebanon.

In an interview with the New York Post newspaper on Tuesday, Trump said “something could be happening over the next two days” in Islamabad as he hailed Pakistani Field Marshal Asim Munir, who has been among the officials shepherding the negotiations.

Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem said sources stated there are already messages being exchanged regarding what both sides consider to be “bridgeable issues”.

“Iran is open to talks, and it showed that from last week when it went to Islamabad. The main hurdle always is the mistrust, distrust between both sides,” Hashem said.

“For the Iranians, they’ve been repeating that they’re open. If the Americans want to fight, they’re going to fight. And if they want to talk, they can talk.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived in Beijing as the United States blocks the Strait of Hormuz, through which China imports about a third of its oil supplies.

Lavrov received a red-carpet welcome on Tuesday, according to photos shared by Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Beijing and Moscow have condemned the US and Israel over their war on Iran, with China also being economically affected by the energy crisis it has caused.

China, a big importer of Iranian oil, also slammed a recently imposed US scheme to blockade vessels entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including in the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.

“The Strait of Hormuz is an important international trade route for goods and energy, and maintaining its security, stability, and unimpeded flow is in the common interest of the international community,” China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Monday.

Lavrov speaks to Araghchi

Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Washington, DC, said the US’s goal is to choke Iran off by blocking everything coming in and out of Iranian ports.

“What the US hopes is that there’ll be pressure on Iran from some of its main business partners, including China,” he said, adding that Beijing imports about a third of its oil from Iran. “The United States is hoping that pressure on China will mean China putting pressure on Iran and forcing Iran to get back to the negotiating table.”

On Monday, Lavrov held a telephone conversation with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi.

The top Russian diplomat told  Araghchi it was important to guard against any resumption of hostilities in the Middle East, and said Russia stood ready to help with a settlement, according to a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

“S Lavrov emphasised the importance of preventing a recurrence of armed confrontation and once again confirmed Russia’s unwavering readiness to assist in resolving the crisis, which has no military solution,” the ministry said.

It added Araghchi related to Lavrov details of US-Iran talks in Pakistan at the weekend, which failed to reach a breakthrough.

Beijing and Moscow are close economic and political partners, and the relationship has deepened further since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Wang also held a call with Lavrov on April 5, when they agreed that Beijing and Moscow would work together to de-escalate tensions in the Middle East.

Diplomacy traffic in Beijing

China welcomed a string of leaders of countries that have been affected by the war and its economic fallout this week, including Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also known as MBZ.

Chinese President Xi Jinping met MBZ and Sanchez on Tuesday morning, and Vietnamese President To Lam is expected in China for a four-day trip.

“I think what this really speaks to is that many people around the world have been surprised that China has not played a more active role in the Iran war, given it has such strong ties with Tehran, including as Iran’s largest trading partner and buyer of crude oil,” Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing, said.

“But what China has been doing, besides calling for restraint and more negotiation, is taking advantage of this moment to really look at states that may be a little disenchanted with the US or looking to diversify from reliance on Washington,” Yu said.

“China has presented itself as the opposite of Washington – a reliable, stable and predictable partner. For many states, that message really appeals.”

Trump’s threats after ‘fabricated’ reports

Trump, who is scheduled to visit Beijing next month for talks with Xi, said on Sunday he would hit China’s goods with a 50 percent tariff if it provided military assistance to Tehran.

His comments came the same day CNN reported that US intelligence indicated China was preparing to deliver new air defence systems to Iran within the next few weeks, quoting three people familiar with the assessments.

On Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo said those reports were “completely fabricated”.

“If the US insists on using this as an excuse to impose additional tariffs on China, China will definitely take resolute countermeasures,” he said.

Iran accuses the US of committing piracy as thousands of Iranians rally in Tehran against the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. military has said it will start enforcing a blockade of all Iranian Gulf ports and coastal areas today. The move follows on from U.S. President Donald Trump’s earlier promise to close off the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic shipping route that Iran has already effectively shut to the vast majority of maritime traffic in response to U.S.-Israeli strikes. It comes after negotiators from both sides failed to reach a deal to end the war, which began on February 28 but is currently under a two-week truce.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) said it would start the blockade at 10:00 a.m. ET, effectively taking control of all maritime traffic linked to Iran.

“The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman,” CENTCOM said. “CENTCOM forces will not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports.”

Reuters reports that the U.S. military sent the following message to seafarers providing more details of the blockade:

“Any vessel entering or departing the blockaded area without authorization is subject to interception, diversion, and capture,” the note reportedly said. “The blockade will not impede neutral transit passage through the Strait of Hormuz to or from non-Iranian destinations.”

We have reached out to CENTCOM for more details about how this will be enforced and what assets will be involved. In the meantime, The Wall Street Journal reports that “more than 15 U.S. warships” are currently involved in the operation.

Meanwhile, the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center has issued the following guidelines to ships:

• The restrictions encompass the entirety of the Iranian coastline, including ports and energy
  infrastructure.
• Transit passage through the Strait of Hormuz to or from non-Iranian destinations is not
  reported to be impeded by these measures; however, vessels may encounter military
  presence, directed communications, or right-of-visit procedures during passage.
• Neutral vessels currently within Iranian ports have been granted a limited grace period to
  depart.

In a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said Sunday that the U.S. Navy was going to start “BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz.”

US President Donald Trump says that the US is going to start “BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz” as Islamabad talks fail. https://t.co/GCmLstdLKR

— Sidhant Sibal (@sidhant) April 12, 2026

“I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas,” Trump said.

“Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!” he continued.

In a statement today, maritime data and intelligence company Lloyd’s List Intelligence said “all traffic” through the strait had indeed stopped after Trump announced the blockade. It added that two vessels that were leaving the strait turned around after the post.

There has been some movement of vessels through the strait since the ceasefire was announced, but this has been extremely limited, and these ships are still exposed to risk.

Trump:

34 Ships went through the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, which is by far the highest number since this foolish closure began. pic.twitter.com/Wf2chAqHdS

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 13, 2026

Referencing Iranian mines in these waters, Trump told Fox News Sunday that “it won’t take long to clean out the strait” and that “numerous countries are going to be helping us,” adding that the United Kingdom and other nations were sending minesweepers. At this stage, we are still awaiting confirmation of non-U.S. military participation in the blockade.

Trump:

NATO countries say they want to come, and they want to help with the strait, and it won’t take long to clean it out.

So we’re going to clean out the strait. pic.twitter.com/3xGW30ekvm

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 12, 2026

Last week, the Iranian Ports and Maritime Organization published a graphic instructing ships to follow designated entry and exit routes to transit the strait. The organization warned that ships ran the risk of hitting mines outside of these routes. A spokesperson from Lloyd’s List told the BBC: “We know Iran is essentially still in control of the strait, and the assumption is that ship owners will still need to seek permission from the IRGC… and how that’s going to work is still not clear.”

While Trump said the U.S. military would cooperate with other countries to halt maritime traffic through the strait, NATO allies said on Monday they would not take part in the blockade, Reuters reports. Instead, those countries have reportedly indicated they would only consider involvement after the fighting ends.

NATO allies refuse to join Trump’s Strait of Hormuz blockade

(Reuters) – The United States’ NATO allies said on Monday they would not get involved in President Donald Trump’s plan to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, further ratcheting up tensions within the increasingly fragile…

— Phil Stewart (@phildstewart) April 13, 2026

One country that stands behind the blockade is Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said on Monday that he supports Trump’s decision to impose a naval blockade on Iran and that Tel Aviv is coordinating with Washington on the situation.

“Iran violated the rules [of the peace talks in Pakistan], President Trump decided to impose a naval blockade,” Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting, according to a video statement released by his office.

Netanyahu:

Since Iran violated the rules, Trump decided to impose a blockade, a naval siege, and we of course support this firm position. pic.twitter.com/BhpoAOdDp6

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 13, 2026

In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that “approaching military vessels to the Strait of Hormuz is considered a violation of the ceasefire.”

An Iranian Armed Forces spokesperson said on Monday that restricting vessels in international waters was illegal and “amounts to piracy.”

Iran would decisively implement a “permanent mechanism” to control the Strait of Hormuz, the spokesman added.

“Security in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman is either for everyone or for NO ONE,” the military said, according to the state broadcaster IRIB. “NO PORT in the region will be safe.”

While unclear at this point if related or not, the Ambrey maritime security firm told TWZ that a merchant vessel had sighted an explosion and a fire in the Fateh Oil Field, approximately 45 nautical miles northwest of the port of Jebel Ali, in the United Arab Emirates.

“Video footage and still imagery showed that the fire extended above the horizon to a significant altitude, Ambrey said. “The vessel did not report hearing any distress calls. At the time of writing, no casualties, damage to merchant vessels, or damage to port infrastructure had been reported,” the security firm added.

Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, took to X with a message to the United States yesterday, posting a map showing gas prices in Washington, DC, and the words: “Enjoy the current pump figures. With the so-called ‘blockade’, soon you’ll be nostalgic for $4–$5 gas.”

Enjoy the current pump figures. With the so-called ‘blockade’, Soon you’ll be nostalgic for $4–$5 gas.

ΔO_BSOH>0 ⇒ f(f(O))>f(O) pic.twitter.com/rVxlC6vFWG

— محمدباقر قالیباف | MB Ghalibaf (@mb_ghalibaf) April 12, 2026

Earlier, Ghalibaf said Trump’s new threats would not affect the Iranian nation: “If you fight, we will fight … We will not bow to any threats.”

Iran’s speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, responds to Trump:
If you fight, we fight, and if you come with reason, we deal with reason. We will not succumb to any threat. Let them test our will once again so we can give them an even greater lesson.

— Ali Hashem علي هاشم (@Alihashem) April 12, 2026

Trump claims that the U.S. military has already “obliterated” 158 Iranian ships. “Iran’s navy is laying [sic] at the bottom of the sea,” he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

Trump:

Iran’s Navy is laying at the bottom of the sea, completely obliterated – 158 ships.

What we have not hit are their small number of, what they call, “fast attack ships,” because we did not consider them much of a threat.

Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere… pic.twitter.com/HPqcaSLiSs

— Clash Report (@clashreport) April 13, 2026

The Wall Street Journal previously warned that, while the United States and Israel have wiped out much of Iran’s conventional navy, the fleet of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which Tehran relies on to exert control over the Strait of Hormuz, remains largely intact.

The paramilitary IRGC maintains a large fleet of smaller, more agile vessels built to dominate the strategic waterway using missiles, mines, and otherwise to harass commercial shipping.

Farzin Nadimi, an Iran-focused senior fellow with the Washington Institute, a U.S.-based think tank, told the WSJ that more than 60 percent of the IRGC’s fast-attack craft and speedboat fleet remains intact and that it continues to pose a threat.

Reflecting on Iran’s “fast attack ships,” Trump said they are not considered “much of a threat” to the blockade. He threatened to take down these ships using the same “system of kill” used against “drug dealers on boats,” a reference to U.S. military operations in the Caribbean.

“Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED, using the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at Sea.” – President Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/Gj9nFCfG8T

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 13, 2026

Since the conflict began on February 28, the strait’s geography has enabled Iran to use it as a strategic lever, restricting access through the narrow passage and driving up oil prices as a result. Tehran has also been demanding large payments from some vessels for safe passage.

By enforcing the blockade, Trump could deprive the Iranian government of a key source of income, though it also runs the risk of pushing global oil and gas prices even higher.

This also ties in with reports that Trump and his advisers have received warnings from officials and corporate leaders about the potential hit on the U.S. economy from a prolonged war.

NEW: Inside the meetings + calls where President Trump and his team were given clear indicators that the economy (possible rise in prices) could take a hit if the war in Iran is prolonged.

Treasury Secretary Bessent and the president discussed various measures the Treasury could…

— Brian Schwartz (@schwartzbWSJ) April 12, 2026

On the other hand, there remains a question about just how significant an effect on Iran a blockade of this kind will have.

According to Lars Jensen, the chief executive of analysts Vespucci Maritime, in the near term, the blockade of the strait will only halt “a very tiny trickle of vessels.” Meanwhile, any other ships paying tolls to Iran already face sanctions for funding the regime.

While the blockade is calculated to help pressure Iran into making a deal on American terms, Trump has said he is unconcerned about whether Tehran returns to negotiations. “I don’t care if they come back or not,” he said on Sunday. “If they don’t come back, I’m fine.”

China is becoming an increasing factor in the crisis in the Middle East. With each passing day, Beijing’s energy situation becomes more of a problem, with impacts from the strangulation of oil out of the Strait becoming more pronounced. Iran is a key supplier of oil to China.

In a statement yesterday, before the blockade came into force, the Chinese defense minister, Adm. Dong Jun, said that his country was “monitoring the situation in the Middle East. Our ships are moving in and out of the waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” he added. “We have trade and energy agreements with Iran. We will respect and honor them and expect others to not meddle in our affairs. Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz, and it is open for us.”

CHINA BACKS IRAN

“We are commited for peace & stability in the world. We are monitoring the situation in the middle east. Our ships are moving in and out of the waters of Strait of Hormuz. We have trade & energy agreements with Iran. We will respect & honour them and expect… pic.twitter.com/7tgWQOo9Ib

— China in English (@En_chinaNews) April 13, 2026

CENTCOM declined to respond to our questions about the current rules of engagement or what would happen should a Chinese vessel try to pass through the strait.

According to The Wall Street Journal, citing officials and people familiar with the situation, Trump and his advisers are looking at resuming limited military strikes in Iran in addition to the blockade of the strait. The same officials reportedly said that a full-fledged bombing campaign is considered less likely, “given the prospect of further destabilizing the region and the president’s aversion to prolonged military conflicts.”

BREAKING: President Trump is looking at resuming limited military strikes in Iran, according to officials and people familiar with the situation. -WSJ

Trump could also resume a full-fledged bombing campaign pic.twitter.com/CUr0nFC0h9

— Faytuks News (@Faytuks) April 12, 2026

UPDATES:

UPDATE: 4:40 PM EDT –

President Trump’s remarks on Iran during an impromptu White House press appearance on Monday appeared to dampen expectations for a swift diplomatic resolution to the conflict.

“They will never have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters shortly after accepting a DoorDash delivery of McDonald’s, staged to highlight his tax policy eliminating levies on tips.

“If they don’t agree, there’s no deal. There’ll never be a deal. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon, and we’re going to get the dust back. We’ll get it back, either we’ll get it back from them, or we’ll take it.”

.@POTUS: “Iran will not have a nuclear weapon… If they don’t agree, there’s no deal. There’ll never be a deal. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon and we’re going to get the dust back — either we’ll get it back from them or we’ll take it.” pic.twitter.com/SNani9M8hT

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 13, 2026

A U.S. official said “there is continued engagement between the U.S. and Iran and forward motion on trying to get an agreement,” multiple outlets reported.

CNN’s coverage of the ongoing U.S.-Iran conflict included a direct quote from the official, while a Reuters alert similarly referred to continued engagement, also attributing the information to an official.

UPDATE: 3:23 PM EDT –

AEI estimates Epic Fury costs between $25 and $35 billion.

As of the April 8th ceasefire, AEI’s Elaine McCusker estimates the cost of the war in Iran to be between $25 and $35 billion.

Read her tally of Operation Epic Fury’s cost below.https://t.co/vgFf9kA7mO

— American Enterprise Institute (@AEI) April 13, 2026

UPDATE: 1:30 PM EDT –

The United States asked that Iran agree to a 20-year moratorium on uranium enrichment during talks in Pakistan this weekend, Axios reported Monday.

Citing a source familiar with the situation as well as a U.S. official, Axios said that Iran responded with a proposed “single-digit” timeframe.

☢️🇺🇸🇮🇷The U.S. asked Iran to accept a 20-year moratorium on uranium enrichment during negotiations in Islamabad over the weekend, according the a U.S. official and a source with knowledge. My story on @axioshttps://t.co/rZZfAy72bc

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) April 13, 2026

Bloomberg reports that it is unclear where Trump got the figure of 34 ships passing through the strait yesterday, saying that it has a smaller figure.

Bloomberg: “It was not clear where the president got that exact figure, as it appears to be higher than the number tracked by Bloomberg” pic.twitter.com/RWp0KkjJEi

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) April 13, 2026

Trump says Iran wants to make a deal and that he will not come to any agreement that allows Tehran to have a nuclear weapon.

He said that Iran had “called this morning” and that “they’d like to work a deal.”

The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush has reportedly passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and is expected to arrive in the eastern Mediterranean before the end of the week. The carrier will take the place of the USS Gerald R. Ford, which suffered a fire while underway in the Middle East, and is now being repaired at Souda Bay in Crete. You can keep up to date on these movements using TWZ’s weekly carrier tracker monitoring America’s flattop fleet, including deployed Carrier Strike Groups and Amphibious Ready Groups, using publicly available open-source information.

Carrier Tracker As of April 12, 2026

Trump orders U.S. Navy to blockade Strait of Hormuz as a third carrier strike group steams towards the CENTCOM area of responsibility.https://t.co/fxxOfsHfkE

— The War Zone (@thewarzonewire) April 13, 2026

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday reaffirmed that Britain will not take part in any blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaking to the BBC, Starmer said the government’s priority is ensuring the strait is fully reopened.

“All the time the strait is shut or not free for navigation in the way it should be, that means oil and gas is not getting to market, that means the price is going up, and everybody listening to this is facing higher energy bills,” Starmer said. “I don’t want that to happen. I want their energy bills to be stabilized and lower.”

The ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz is deeply damaging. Getting global shipping moving is vital to ease cost of living pressures.

The UK has convened more than 40 nations who share our aim to restore freedom of navigation.

This week the UK and France will co-host a…

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) April 13, 2026

After the Islamabad talks, it is clear that the Iranian nuclear issue remains the top sticking point. In a cabinet meeting today, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had spoken to U.S. Vice President JD Vance about the negotiations. “The explosion came from the American side, which could not tolerate Iran’s blatant violation of the agreement to enter the negotiations,” Netanyahu said. “The agreement was that they would cease fire, and the Iranians would immediately open the gates. They did not do that. The Americans could not accept that. He also made it clear to me that the main issue on the agenda for President Trump and the United States is the removal of all enriched material, and ensuring that there is no more enrichment in the coming years, and that could be in decades, no enrichment within Iran.”

Netanyahu at a cabinet meeting: “I spoke yesterday with Vice President J.D. Vance. He called me from his plane on his way back from Islamabad. He reported to me in detail, as this administration does every day, about the development of the negotiations. In this case, the…

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) April 13, 2026

Again, on the nuclear issue, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that Russia is ready to take in Iran’s highly enriched uranium as part of a future peace deal with the United States.

Russia is ready to take in Iran’s enriched uranium as part of a future peace deal with the United States, the Kremlin says

— Faytuks Network (@FaytuksNetwork) April 13, 2026

Israel’s military announced on Monday that it has started what it described as targeted ground operations in the Bint Jbeil area of southern Lebanon.

Although Iran and Pakistan claim that the temporary ceasefire brokered by Pakistan last week also covers Lebanon, Netanyahu stated that there is “no ceasefire in Lebanon” and that Israel will continue to strike Hezbollah “with full force.”

The Israeli military has nearly completed capturing the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon, killing more than 100 members of the terror group in the area in the process, according to the IDF.

The operation in Bint Jbeil is being led by the 98th Division with… pic.twitter.com/Vkh6BSSa0N

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) April 13, 2026

David Ignatius, an associate editor and columnist for The Washington Post, has provided his prediction on what might happen after the failure to reach a deal in Islamabad over the weekend. Ignatius writes:

“After talking Sunday with people close to the negotiations, my sense is that the Islamabad impasse won’t necessarily mean a return to war. The blockade is a pressure tactic, to be sure, but not primarily a military one. Trump has no appetite for further armed conflict. He knows that the upsides are limited and the ‘tail risk,’ as financial traders like to say, is large. His aim instead is to put a severely battered Iran into an economic vise to see if its leaders will set a different course in a big, comprehensive deal.”

David Ignatius: “After talking Sunday with people close to the negotiations, my sense is that the Islamabad impasse won’t necessarily mean a return to war. The blockade is a pressure tactic, to be sure, but not primarily a military one. Trump has no appetite for further armed…

— Karim Sadjadpour (@ksadjadpour) April 12, 2026

Meanwhile, citing a regional source and a U.S. official, Axios reports that Pakistani, Egyptian, and Turkish mediators will continue talks with the United States and Iran in the coming days, “in an effort to bridge the remaining gaps and reach a deal to end the war.”

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also indicated on Monday that efforts are still being made to resolve the conflict.

ISLAMABAD, April 13 (Reuters) – Full efforts are still being made to resolve the conflict between the U.S. and Iran, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Monday, a day after talks between the two sides, held in Islamabad, ended without agreement.

— Idrees Ali (@idreesali114) April 13, 2026

Trump launched a sharp attack on Pope Leo XIV over the weekend, calling him “weak on crime and terrible for foreign policy” and accusing him of harming the Catholic Church. “Leo should get his act together as Pope,” he wrote on Truth Social. The criticism came after Leo condemned the “delusion of omnipotence” as driving the U.S.-Israel war in Iran and urged political leaders to halt the fighting and pursue negotiations.

“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime,” begins a Sunday evening message from the President.

Also: “Leo should get his act together as Pope.” pic.twitter.com/2Bl1jTOsc0

— Niall Stanage (@NiallStanage) April 13, 2026

“I have no intention to debate with [Trump],” Leo said today. “The message is the same: to promote peace,” he added.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

What does Donald Trump’s naval blockade of Iranian ports look like and can it achieve what the US president wants? It is hard to know when the planning appears to have been done on the fly, according to war studies lecturer Samir Puri.

Britain has publicly distanced itself from Washington’s escalating strategy against Iran, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer making clear that the UK will not support any blockade in the Gulf.

Speaking after the United States announced sweeping restrictions on Iranian shipping, Starmer emphasized that Britain’s priority is not enforcement but de-escalation. He stressed the importance of keeping vital trade routes open rather than contributing to further disruption.

What Starmer Said

Starmer’s message was direct. The UK will not be drawn into the conflict and will not support a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

Instead, Britain is focused on ensuring the strait remains open. While confirming the presence of British minesweepers in the region, he made clear their role is defensive and aimed at maintaining safe passage, not enforcing restrictions.

Contrast with Washington

The stance puts London at odds with the approach taken by Donald Trump.

The U.S., through United States Central Command, has announced a broad blockade targeting Iranian maritime traffic. Trump has gone further, warning that vessels linked to Iranian payments could be intercepted and threatening force against any resistance.

While Washington frames the move as pressure on Tehran, Britain is signaling concern about the wider consequences.

Why the Strait Matters

The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the most critical energy routes in the world. A significant share of global oil supply passes through it, meaning even partial disruption can send shockwaves through markets.

For the UK, keeping this route open is not just a regional issue but a global economic priority.

Implications: Cracks in Western Unity

Britain’s refusal highlights a growing divide among Western allies on how to handle the Iran crisis.

The U.S. is pursuing a strategy of maximum pressure, while the UK is prioritizing stability and the prevention of further escalation. This divergence could complicate coordinated action and weaken the overall Western response.

Analysis: A Strategic Balancing Act

Starmer’s position reflects a careful calculation. Supporting the blockade risks entangling Britain in a wider conflict and worsening global economic strain. Opposing it, however, creates visible distance from a key ally.

By focusing on keeping the strait open, the UK is attempting to balance security concerns with economic stability, while avoiding direct confrontation.

Britain’s stance sends a clear signal. Even close allies are not fully aligned on how far to go against Iran.

As tensions rise, that lack of unity could shape the next phase of the crisis just as much as the actions taken in the Gulf itself.

With information from Reuters.

April 13 (UPI) — The U.S. military said it will begin blocking all ships from leaving or entering Iran’s ports on Monday morning in line with a maritime blockade ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump to cut off Iranian oil exports.

U.S. Central Command said in a news release Sunday that the blockade would be enforced equitably against vessels of all nations sailing to or from Iranian ports, including all those on the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, but stressed vessels serving ports in neighboring countries would be left alone.

“CENTCOM forces will not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports,” said the news release, which instructs the masters of all ships to monitor “Notice to Mariners” broadcasts and make radio contact with U.S. naval forces on bridge-to-bridge channels in Gulf of Oman and Strait of Hormuz approaches.

The blockade would effectively cut off Iran’s international trade by preventing it from importing or exporting anything by sea, in particular its energy exports on which it is reliant for hard currency.

Further details would be communicated in a formal notice that would be provided to commercial ships and operators prior to the start of the blockade, due to come into force at 10 a.m. EDT, CENTCOM said.

The statement clarified comments by Trump early Sunday in which he appeared to announce a total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz in response to the failure of peace talks in Pakistan at the weekend.

Trump had said the U.S. Navy “will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz.”

On Saturday, CENTCOM announced that the U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyers USS Frank E. Peterson USS Michael Murphy had transited the Strait of Hormuz and operated in the Persian Gulf, preparatory to clearing Iranian mines and reopening the shipping route to commercial vessels.

Tehran responded to the development with unspecified threats against the ports of its neighbors and raised the specter of widening the conflict to the Red Sea, the other sea passage in the region that is critical to the global economy.

“Security in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman is either for everyone or for NO ONE. If Iran’s ports are threatened, NO PORT in the region will be safe,” the Iranian military’s central command said in a statement carried by state-run broadcaster IRIB.

“Naval blockade of Iran? Bab al-mandeb Coming soon?!,” IRIB said earlier in a post referencing the narrow strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea, which leads to the Suez Canal, where Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked around 100 commercial ships November 2023 through September 2025.

Oil prices rose in response to the developments while stock markets retreated.

The benchmark Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate both climbed back above $100 a barrel with the Brent contract for June delivery changing hands at $102.31 per barrel in mid-morning trade in London while the WTI contract for May was trading at $104.44.

The FTSE 100 in London was down 0.33%, the DAX in Frankfurt fell almost 1.2% and France’s CAC 40 was off by almost 1%.

Former U.S. special envoy to the region David Satterfield expressed concerns over the blockade, warning that if shipping continued to be affected current supply disruption would widen beyond oil, with serious implications for Gulf countries’ exports of many other critical materials from aluminum and helium to polymers and fertilizer feed stocks.

“The Gulf is a critical global supply point, far beyond hydrocarbons — and the impact if this goes on for several more weeks is going to become quite profound, beyond just the cost of petrol and diesel at the pump,” Satterfield told the BBC.

Other US allies criticise Trump’s move, including France, Spain and Turkiye, and China also condemns the plan.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says his country will not join the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz announced by United States President Donald Trump, a move also criticised by other US allies.

“We are not supporting the blockade,” Starmer told BBC radio on Monday, adding that the United Kingdom “is not getting dragged in” to the US-Israel war on Iran.

Starmer said it was vital to get the strait reopened. In peacetime, about 20 percent of the world’s oil supplies pass through the strategic waterway that links the Gulf to the Indian Ocean.

“It is in my view vital that we get the strait open and fully open, and that’s where we’ve put all of our efforts in the last few weeks, and we’ll continue to do so,” he said.

Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, reporting from London, said Starmer has continued to “maintain a delicate balancing act” of saying the UK will not be joining the war while being careful not to level any criticism directly at Trump regarding his actions in the war.

Traffic through the strait has been heavily restricted since the start of the war. Iran has allowed through only some vessels serving friendly countries, such as China.

Starmer made his statement as the US military announced it would block all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports starting from 14:00 GMT. It was unclear, however, how the US military would enforce the blockade.

“The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman,” the US military’s Central Command said.

US forces would not impede vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports, it added.

In a lengthy social media post on Sunday, Trump said his goal was to clear the strait of mines and reopen it to all shipping and Iran must not be allowed to profit from controlling the waterway.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France and the UK would hold a conference in the coming days aimed at restoring freedom of navigation in the strait.

Macron reiterated that no diplomatic effort be spared in reaching a lasting end to the US-Israel war on Iran.

Nicole Grajewski, assistant professor at the Center for International Research at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, said a US blockade was “not a minor coercive signal” but could rather be considered essentially a resumption of the war.

Other US allies also criticised Trump’s move, including Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles, who said the planned naval blockade “makes no sense”.

“It’s one more episode in this whole downward spiral into which we’ve been dragged,” she said.

Fellow NATO ally Turkiye said the Strait of Hormuz should open “as soon as possible”.

“Negotiations with Iran should be conducted, persuasion methods should be used and the strait should be opened as soon as possible,” Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told the state-run Anadolu news agency.

China, Washington’s great power rival and a big importer of Iranian oil, also criticised the plan.

“The Strait of Hormuz is an important international trade route for goods and energy, and maintaining its security, stability and unimpeded flow is in the common interest of the international community,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun said, urging Iran and the US not to reignite the war.

Iran’s military has called US blockade plans in the Strait of Hormuz an “act of piracy”, warning that the ports in the Gulf and Seas of Oman are “either for everyone or for no one”. Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi is in Tehran.